YouTube classic rock solo lessons with on screen scrolling tab (Extreme, Bon Jovi, AC/DC, Def Lep)

xscaramanga

Lockdown finally gave me a chance to launch my Half Speed Solos series, which I've wanted to do for a long time. Each week I post a classic solo, first demonstrated at full speed, then a close up half speed demonstration with scrolling tab. No flim-flam, straight to the point.

The latest one I've done is Johnny B Goode:



My most popular one so far is Play With Me by Extreme (although it was also the first one I did so it was blatantly just my mates checking it out for curiosity's sake):



It's mostly an 80s rock thing, but with the odd foray into other classic rock territory (Zep, Sabbath).

Some others I've done so far:

Give Me All Your Lovin'

Dr Feelgood (Motley Crue)

You Give Love a Bad Name

Get the Funk Out

Photograph (Def Leppard, not Nickelback!)

Back in Black

The Final Countdown

Whole Lotta Love

I hope you enjoy them. They're fun but time consuming to make, so I hope people get something out of it.

DrCornelius

Wow, can I be the first to say how great they are . I play an approximation of the Back n Black solo so I just watched that and really enjoyed it.

I'll be subscribing for sure

hollywoodrox

Dude you freakin rule , subscribed  and thank you 

not_the_dj

Nice format. 

fastonebaz

Great format. You're picking action looks really relaxed.  Which was the hardest to learn?

xscaramanga

Thanks so much for the encouragement. It's tough as a new YouTuber, so much great content that it's hard to get views. So really appreciate the positive feedback.

fastonebaz said:

Great format. You're picking action looks really relaxed.  Which was the hardest to learn?

Play With Me was the hardest to learn by a country mile. I probably could have started the series sooner but I wanted to start with an impressive one and I was set on doing that. I started trying to learn it back when I was a BIMM student and didn't get anywhere. I had another go once I realised Nuno wasn't picking very much, just using his trick of palm muting to make it sound like picking. It's still a monster though. 

stratman3142

Excellent. I've always struggled with that tapping section of Get The Funk Out. Perhaps I'll have another go.
 

PhilW1

Great stuff! No waffle!  Like the format ,some a bit complex for me but I might finally get Johnny B Goode right.
Great sound too, what are you using and are you going to use a different guitar for each track!?Looks like it so far.

xscaramanga

stratman3142 said:

Excellent. I've always struggled with that tapping section of Get The Funk Out. Perhaps I'll have another go.
 

That would be great! My YouTube stats indicate a lot of people are watching the demonstrations and then clicking away. It makes me really happy when I hear about people using the lessons to get on top of the solos.

PhilW1 said:

Great stuff! No waffle!  Like the format ,some a bit complex for me but I might finally get Johnny B Goode right.
Great sound too, what are you using and are you going to use a different guitar for each track!?Looks like it so far.

Glad you like the format. No waffle is the point, although apparently the almighty algorithm deprioritises very short videos now, so I might actually be suffering for it. 

I'm trying to do the whole range of difficulty levels. Paranoid is pretty much as easy as solos in 'real' rock songs get, while Play With Me is the most difficult thing I can do. I make them as a resource for my own students, so I know the intermediate solos are far more educationally valuable than the shred ones. But shred gets views.

 If I used a different guitar for every video I'd have run out of guitars already! Now lockdown is lifted a bit I might start borrowing mates' guitars, but I try just to use a guitar that can get me in the right tonal ballpark. The amp sounds come from a Fractal AX8. I usually start with one of Austin Buddy's Naked Amps patches and tweak from there. I most often use the JCM800 model but Chuck Berry was a Bassman model with Vintage 30 speakers (a la Brian Setzer).

PhilW1

Had a proper go last night, did the 'Johnny' intro and even had a go at the tapping part/intro to 'Play with me'--Quite pleased with the results although struggling with the rest of it.
Really enjoyed it, like the format and the funny clips so well done and keep 'em coming.

BlueStrat

Great videos, excellent playing and lesson so thanks for posting. 

Subscribed!

Vibetronic

Those are really good @jonnyscaramanga ;. Really clear, well played, and a complete lack of ego/waffle too which is refreshing in this kind of thing and good to see in educational stuff   I love that Shadow guitar too - never heard of them, where on earth did you get that?!

dindude

Great stuff. I did a massive purge on YouTube subscriptions last week getting down to my top 10. You’re now no.11

darius

These are really impressive. 

And so is your hair. 

I really like the short format. Boom, job done, no messing. But it’s not obvious that that is what a viewer is going to get. I’d suggest adding something to the thumbnail that tells me I’m going to get a short format, full speed half speed and scrolling tabs on screen. 

And stick some info in ABOUT, people love that stuff. And make useful PLAYLISTS. Spoon feed the masses. 

Good luck with the channel, I hope you can get it to take off!

tone1

Absolutely fantastic.... Subscribed  

xscaramanga

Vibetronic said:

Those are really good @jonnyscaramanga ;. Really clear, well played, and a complete lack of ego/waffle too which is refreshing in this kind of thing and good to see in educational stuff   I love that Shadow guitar too - never heard of them, where on earth did you get that?!

Thanks to you (and everyone) for the nice comments. You're going to give me the giant ego which you said I didn't have at this rate!

The Sonic and Shadow guitars were made by ESP for the 25th anniversary of the first Sonic Game (and 15th anniversary of Shadow's debut). They were available as a special order for one year. I only found out about them after they were discontinued, but luckily I found a shop in France with them in stock and did a deal for the pair.

darius said:

These are really impressive. 

And so is your hair. 

I really like the short format. Boom, job done, no messing. But it’s not obvious that that is what a viewer is going to get. I’d suggest adding something to the thumbnail that tells me I’m going to get a short format, full speed half speed and scrolling tabs on screen. 

And stick some info in ABOUT, people love that stuff. And make useful PLAYLISTS. Spoon feed the masses. 

Good luck with the channel, I hope you can get it to take off!

This is excellent advice, thank you Darius. It's a challenge to get the info into a thumbnail and title when you remember that people are viewing on phones where the thumbnail is tiny and the whole title is not always shown. I'll figure it out. 

Latest one is Sweet Child o' Mine:

xscaramanga

Hey all,

Didn't want to bore you all by posting every week, but I've continued knocking these out—it's been six months now!

Last few have been at opposite ends of the difficulty spectrum, so I put them together in a beginner playlist and a shred playlist.

My most popular recent shred video was based on Kee Marcello's sweep picking version of the Final Countdown:



Other recent videos include:

Extreme, Warheads

AC/DC Highway to Hell

Def Leppard, Armageddon It

Aerosmith, Dude (Looks Like a Lady)

Joan Jett, I Love Rock n' Roll

Danger Danger (Andy Timmons), Crazy Nites

They're really time consuming to make so I doubt I'll be able to keep them up after lockdown, but they're fun to do and hopefully helpful to people.

John_A

Brilliant format, love it!  I really hate 45 minute videos where 3 minutes in the guy is “put your third finger on the g string at the seventh fret”. The half speed is enough for most people to get their heads and fingers round it.  Very impressive playing too!

Switch625

Nice, I enjoyed watching a few of those. Really enjoyed your covers of the Paper Sun solo and Dangerous. Do you give lessons?

hollywoodrox

They’re really good

xscaramanga

John_A said:

Brilliant format, love it!  I really hate 45 minute videos where 3 minutes in the guy is “put your third finger on the g string at the seventh fret”. The half speed is enough for most people to get their heads and fingers round it.  Very impressive playing too!

EXACTLY! That's why I make them. I knew there must be other people who feel the same. Glad you like my playing too, thank you very much.

Switch625 said:

Nice, I enjoyed watching a few of those. Really enjoyed your covers of the Paper Sun solo and Dangerous. Do you give lessons?

Thanks a lot. I love Def Leppard, have to hold myself back from just doing a whole channel on them. Yes, I give lessons, only online at the minute because of lockdown but usually in person as well. Feel free to DM if you're interested.